Joule heating generated by spin current through Josephson junctions

We theoretically study the spin-polarized current flowing through a Josephson junction (JJ) in a spin injection device. When the spin-polarized current is injected from a ferromagnet (FM) in a superconductor (SC), the charge current is carried by the superconducting condensate (Cooper pairs), while the spin-up and spin-down currents flow in the equal magnitude but in the opposite direction in SC, because of no quasiparticle charge current in SC. This indicates that not only the Josephson current but also the spin current flow across JJ at zero bias voltage, thereby generating Joule heating by the spin current. The result provides a new method for detecting the spin current by measuring Joule heating at JJ.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure

Kondo effect in quantum dots coupled to ferromagnetic leads

We study the Kondo effect in a quantum dot which is coupled to ferromagnetic leads and analyse its properties as a function of the spin polarization of the leads. Based on a scaling approach we predict that for parallel alignment of the magnetizations in the leads the strong-coupling limit of the Kondo effect is reached at a finite value of the magnetic field. Using an equation-of-motion technique we study nonlinear transport through the dot. For parallel alignment the zero-bias anomaly may be split even in the absence of an external magnetic field. For antiparallel spin alignment and symmetric coupling, the peak is split only in the presence of a magnetic field, but shows a characteristic asymmetry in amplitude and position.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure